There is a reason why we call them precious gems- they are of great value and sentimental pieces we wear day to day. Your jewelry is an investment and something that should be cared for, especially if you live a fit and active lifestyle. Below you will find some reasons why it is important to remove your jewelry before breaking a sweat in order to maintain their safety and sparkle.

Damage

When you’re at the gym your main focus should be getting in a good workout, not keeping track of where you might have dropped your expensive gold and diamond wedding band. Depending on what type of metal your ring is, working out on machines can cause significant damage. Specific metals such as titanium might be able to tolerate direct contact from lifting heavy weights, due to its hardness. However, softer and more favored metals like gold and silver can easily be bent out of shape from any sort of encounter. In addition, any plated jewelry you wear could also be damaged, causing the top layer to mix with your perspiration resulting it to become worn out or faded much faster. If you are ever unsure of the type of metal(s) your rings are, consider taking advantage of education pages that online jewelry sites have, such as Blue Nile. Resources like these can be very beneficial, especially when you are in search for your wedding bands and want to find the right metal that will fit best with your lifestyle.

Now, if you do decide to make the smart decision to workout without your jewelry, consider leaving it at home in a safe and secure place. Even leaving them in a locker at the gym can expose your jewelry to theft, so you’re best bet is leaving it behind.

Safety First

Safety and comfort are important aspects to consider before wearing your jewelry at the gym. Whether you are someone who enjoys an intense, sweaty workout or would rather spend it taking it slow and steady, we can all face risks. For instance, running with a loose necklace on can easily get caught in your hair or constantly hit you making for an unnecessary distraction. Or maybe you are attempting to box or lift with your rings on? There is bound to be some discomfort. If you are someone who feels lost without your wedding ring on, then consider replacing your actual ring with a substitute band like these ones from Groove Life to have your mind at ease.

Hygiene

Hygiene is another important factor to recognize in your everyday routine, not just at the gym, but also in scenarios like wearing your wedding band every time you shower as well. Make sure you handle your jewelry properly to maintain beautiful brand new quality to it. After all, what better place for gunk and greases to stick to than something that’s always stuck on you? Sweat is another element that can cause damage to metals, such brass and alloys, which are both frequently found in jewelry. For rings, platinum and gold are good alternatives due to the fact that they are tarnish resistant and won’t leave residue on your finger. Regardless of your end decision, intensive and proper washing will help guarantee your jewelry stays as elegant as possible.

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Cutting calories and working out are well-known ways to lose weight. Recent research shows, however, that another factor could significantly affect weight loss: sleep. Here are the ways that better sleep can lead to a healthier weight, and how to achieve it.

Avoids overeating

Missing your ZZZ’s can cause decreased levels of leptin, the hormone that gives a sense of fullness or satiation. This can increase appetite, often resulting in overconsumption. Similarly, levels of the hormone that makes you feel hungry, grehlin, increases when you are sleep deprived. This combination is what causes most tired people to eat an additional 300 calories a day than those who are well-rested.

Leads to better food choices

When people are tired, they’re more likely to reach for the easiest, tastiest food available, often in the form of high-fat snacks loaded with carbohydrates. This “eating for pleasure” sense is heightened in the afternoon for those who are sleep deprived and can lead to significant weight gain over a prolonged period of time.

Helps process sweets faster

Sleep deprivation can cause the food processing parts of your cells, the mitochondria, to shut down. This means that the sugar in your comfort foods just sits in your blood, raising your blood sugar levels. Your mitochondria are also what regulate your metabolism, or the number of calories burned for energy every day. Getting sufficient sleep can help maintain healthy mitochondria, and therefore, prevent weight gain.

To get better sleep…

Pay off your sleep debt. Most Americans don’t get the recommended eight hours of sleep every night, but it can be mostly made up over the next few nights. Over the weekend, go to bed at your usual weekday time, but then sleep until your body naturally wakes up the next morning. You will probably sleep for longer than usual, but it should go a long way in calibrating your sleep schedule.

Make sure you’re supporting these efforts with the best sleep essentials possible. Use a high-quality mattress and top it with pillows that are soft but supportive to help prevent waking up in the middle of the night.

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It is not all about your mom’s dad when it comes to hair loss. There are number of ways you could be onsetting the process without even knowing. Before the age of 21, ¼ men will begin to notice thinning or loss of hair. This is something that is extremely common, but can really put a dent in your confidence. To keep the hair you do have on your head, try avoiding these mistakes.

Hold Back That Shampoo

Washing your hair with shampoo every day may make you feel clean, but it could be doing damage to your hair. Over time it begins to strip natural oils which are in your hair to make it retain moisture. If you do this too often, your hair can turn brittle and weak.

Unless your scalp is extremely oily, try opting to rinsing your hair with shampoo every other day. If you are concerned about the smell, try putting a few drops of rosemary essential oil onto your fingers and massage it onto your scalp while in the shower. According to Healthline, rosemary essential oil has anti-inflammatory properties and promotes nerve growth. Most importantly, it can improve circulation on the scalp, which can bring blood to hair follicles and prevent them from falling out.

Stressed Out

Between relationships, money and your job, there are plenty of reasons why stress can make its way into your life. Stress can begin to impact your entire body, but when it comes to your hair it can certainly assist in the process of it falling out. Your hair has developed a growing and resting cycle. When stress creeps into your life it has the power to disrupt this rhythm, resulting in possible clumps of hair falling out.

Mental health is extremely important and something that is often overlooked. Spend some time working on your mindfulness by trying some simple meditations. These mental health apps help to clear your head, lower your blood pressure and focus on the present. This will keep your head filled with hair.

Keeping your scalp clean is very important as this can create the inability to grow hair or even lead to an infection on your scalp. To avoid using so much product, speak with your barber about the shape of your head and what hairstyle would go well with that. No one should have to use product every day. Let your hair breathe.

Change Up Your Diet

When you are looking to make a change for your body, first examine what you’re putting into it. Protein is what creates keratin, the protein that hair is made out of. Lack of protein in a diet can cause your hair to become brittle and cause breakage. If you want a healthy head of hair, try eating more spinach.

This superfood is loaded with folate, iron and vitamin A, all of which are beneficial to hair growth. Vitamin A is important because it assists the skin glands in producing sebum. Sebum is an oil that will moisturize the scalp and keep hair feeling thick and healthy. Also, studies have shown that lack of iron has been linked to hair loss. Iron helps to send red blood cells through the body carrying oxygen. This will boost your metabolism and aid in growth and repair.

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With all the news on television, it appears as if there are those who are truly hurting in life. It is for this reason that this article is a must. Many times we want to either numb the pain or get rid of it because it can feel like too much. We are also wired to want to avoid pain and seek pleasure. Although it’s natural to want to avoid pain, pain is also natural and for a good reason. The good reason is that it is feedback.

“What kind of feedback?”, you may wonder. The kind of feedback will depend on where you are in life as well as the kind of pain that you are feeling. There are different degrees of pain and different kinds of pain and in order for you to know which one it is, it is important to go within yourself to find out.

There are emotional and mental pain and then there is physical pain. All these kinds of pain can be associated with the main pain that may have been ignored which is the spiritual pain. With emotional pain, I am referring to any sadness, anxiety, depression, anger, worry, desperation, among other things along these lines that one may feel. I consider them pain because when they are not addressed, they can paralyze and hinder you from living your everyday life.

With mental pain, I’m referring to two things: The first one is the physical symptoms that are associated with the emotional pain that one may feel. The physical symptoms may be consistent headaches, dizziness, or lightheadedness. The second include thoughts and perception. I include thoughts because our thoughts turn into emotions and actions and when the thoughts are not healthy ones, they can create havoc in our life. Our perception shapes the way we view and feel about the things around us and what happens to us and when the perception is not a healthy one, this can be disastrous to one’s well-being.

With physical pain, the list is very long to cover but some of them may include leg problems, high blood pressure due to stress, etc. One thing I must say is that if you feel any physical pain and it is consistent, please seek medical attention. If after seeking medical attention you don’t have any medical condition, then most likely what you’re feeling is psychosomatic symptoms.

Once the pain is there, what can one do about it? It’s easy to want to numb it by either going shopping, eating, drinking, partying, using drugs, among other things that one does to numb the pain. In today’s article, I would like to invite you to allow pain to be your teacher.

How do you allow pain to be your teacher?

Admit to yourself that you feel pain. The first step to anything is to first recognize that something is going on. Notice how I didn’t write that something is wrong. I don’t write this because pain is there to advice you of something so this pain can’t be wrong. It’s just there to give you feedback and feedback is necessary so that changes can be made in order for things to be better. You can’t have a solution or answer without first recognizing and admitting that something is going on.

Accept and embrace the pain. Accept and make friends with your pain. By doing this, you let go of the resistance. Holding on to resistance just make things worse and the pain persists.

How do you become friends with your pain?

Take that moment that you’re feeling that pain to be with yourself. If possible, take 10 minutes to yourself where you will not be disturbed. Take a deep breath in….and then breathe out. Do this a couple more times until you are relaxed. Place your hand on your chest or wherever you feel pain. Close your eyes if you have to but as you have your hand on your chest or wherever the pain is, ask yourself: “what do you want me to know?”; “why do you feel this way?”; “what is it that I am doing or not doing that you want me to be aware of?” Then wait to see if you get an answer. You may not get an answer right away but what you are doing by placing your hand on your chest, or wherever the pain is, and asking yourself these questions is that you are reconnecting with yourself. You are digging within for the answers that you need. You are digging within for your own wisdom.

For instance, if it’s anxiety you are feeling, ask yourself why you are feeling this way. Remind yourself that you are safe and loved. Ask it what it needs you to know and what should you be doing next. What this exercise that I am suggesting does is that it helps you reconnect with yourself because it is that connection with yourself that will lead you to greater well-being.

Last year, I had pain in my knees for some odd reason. Turned out I had patella maltracking but I also questioned myself “how I got to that point?”. As I started digging deeper, I realized I had a lot of stress in my life and I was also struggling with some confidence issues in terms of how I was going to move forward.

With this exercise and article, I want to empower you to know that your body was meant to be healed. Your body is the vessel that your soul chose to reside in. Your pain is a reflection of something that is going on within you that calls your attention. So, I would like to encourage you to think about this pain for a minute. What kind of pain is it? Is it a pain of neglect, fear, lack, or worry? Allow the pain to speak to you and advice you as to what you need to be doing. The one thing to understand is that the soul is not separate from the body and anything that the soul is feeling, your body will feel by default.

The pain that you’re feeling will guide you to what area either within yourself or in your life you need to address. Allow that guidance to flow into your life. You have the best guidance system within you. Every time you feel any pain whether that is anxiety, sadness, depression, etc. all that pain is feedback from your soul and you must listen to that.

To end this article, I would like to encourage you to start viewing your pain from a perspective of your soul speaking to you through your vessel which is your body. Allow the pain to be your friend. It’s there to guide you, not hurt you. Place your hand on the area where the pain is and ask it questions. The point is to reconnect with yourself because it is there where your answers reside. You will notice as you do this that the pain tends to lessen and you are subconsciously empowering yourself. This empowerment, without you realizing it at first, will add greatly to your well-being.

Your pain can be a precious jewel if you allow it. Let pain be your teacher and show you what you need to be doing or going in life.

Aura Elena Martinez is a Wellness and Life Coach, Blogger and Writer, owner and founder of Live to the Max™

Aura Elena Martinez is a Wellness and Life Coach, Blogger and Writer, owner and founder of Live to the Max™/Viva al máximo™, who encourages others to live their fullest in every way, the way they are meant to be.

Poor lifestyle over years and decades causes all kinds of health problems.

Drugs and other medical interventions aren’t a long-term solution because they don’t address the underlying causes. A lifestyle problem needs a lifestyle solution!

Being happy and healthy is NOT complicated, and health-seekers are being bombarded with unnecessary and misleading information.

It makes me so sad to see people trying all kinds of expensive pills, patches and potions in an attempt to correct symptoms of not living well.

The only true solution is to see the “happy and healthy” finish line clearly and then manage the “change” period carefully, so there’s no resistance and no feeling of denial.

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You can read the first chapter “The Happiness Secret” for free, on our home page.

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Was your 2018 new years resolution focused around fitness? Did you succeed? Less than 50% of people maintain their resolutions just after 2 months. Being too tired, sore, busy or just unmotivated are the main reasons of why these goals commonly fail. Another big reason is because we always seem to have plans or errands to run after our workout and we don’t have time or energy to shower and re-do our hair and look. Stylists say you’re only supposed to wash your hair 2-3 times a week so this doesn’t help with fitting in a workout either. According to the infographic below, preparing your hair pre-workout using the right products and hairstyles can help save time post-workout when transforming your hair back to normal. Read along to find the best style and solutions to slay your workout without ruining your look.

Thanks to these tips from eSalon, an at home hair color company that formulates colors specifically for you, there are no more excuses (at least style excuses) to skip your workout.

Do you have any other tips or use other products for your pre and post-workout hair? We’d love to hear your thoughts!